To form walls, modern building methods typically employ sheets of wall material nailed and/or screwed to wall studs. The wall material may be coated with a texture material appropriate for either interior or exterior walls.
Texture materials can be applied to a destination surface in a number of different ways. For large surface areas, the texture material is typically applied with a sprayer system. Sprayer systems may be airless or may mix the texture material with a stream of pressurized air. The source of pressurized air may be a compressor, storage tank, or hand operated pump.
In other cases, such as touch up or repair of a wall or ceiling surface, only a small area need be covered with texture material. For small surfaces areas, the texture material is preferably dispensed using an aerosol system. Aerosol systems typically employ a container assembly, valve assembly, nozzle assembly, and propellant. The propellant pressurizes the texture material within the container such that, when the valve is opened, the texture material flows out of the nozzle assembly. The nozzle assembly is typically designed to deposit the texture material on the destination surface in selected one of a plurality of predetermined texture patterns.
The present invention is of particular relevance to the application of stucco and acoustic or “popcorn” texture materials to small surface areas, and those applications will be described herein in detail. Acoustic and stucco texture materials contain, in addition to a carrier and base, what will be referred to herein as a “particulate” material. The term “particulate texture material” will be used herein to refer to stucco material, acoustic texture, and similar wall coating materials containing particulate material.
The particulate material in acoustic texture material is typically formed by polystyrene chips, but other materials, such as cork, rubber, or the like, may also be used. Typical particulate materials exhibit desirable sound absorption qualities that give acoustic texture material its name. The particulate material in stucco is typically formed by sand or other similar materials.
The need exists for improved systems and methods for applying particulate texture material to relatively small surface areas.